The High Court of Cassation and Justice, clarifications after the payments from the Băneasa Farm files

“Regardless of the public pressure and emotion created by the accusation formulation, the courts can only act within the limits of the law,” transmits the High Court of Cassation and Justice (JCCJ) after the payment of the former Minister of Health, Nicolae Bănicioiu.

The JCCJ brought clarifications on the settlement of what he called “two major public interest”: the file regarding the former Minister of Health and the “Băneasa Farm” file.

In view of the debates generated in the public space by the causes in which persons with notoriety are involved, the spokesman of the Supreme Court has reaffirmed the principles and values ​​that govern the act of justice in a rule of law, the CCCJ transmitted on his website.

Thus, according to the JCCJ:

1. It is not sufficient only to formulate a criminal accusation, but it is necessary to prove it under the conditions of a justice under the conditions of a rule of law.
2. No one can be convicted if there are no conclusive evidence to confirm the guilt. Sending sued without sufficient evidence affects confidence in justice, either confidence in prosecutor's offices or in courts, especially in cases that arouse media interest.
3. It is important that the criminal prosecution be done with diligence, under full legality conditions, complying with all the procedural norms and the way to ensure the standards of the rule of law.
4. Regardless of the public pressure and emotion created by the accusation formulation, the courts can only act within the limits of the law, as a guarantee of the law status. It is precisely these elements that differentiate the judicial systems in the consolidated democratic societies, namely the guarantee of the fair process.
5. Because in the case of many citizens who are the subject of publicly communicated and promoted criminal charges, the public perception of the guilt has already been created, and later the objective legal situation has not confirmed a sentence, or has denied such a solution, it is imposed diligence from the judicial bodies and of the media to strengthen the guarantee of the presumption and the legal person is not only within the limit of the law.
6. In Romania, the standards of the rule of law apply, the justice being carried out on the basis of the law and not as a popular justice. The judges of the national courts are guarantees of the rule of law regarding the assurance of the fair process in compliance with the law, the decisions of the Constitutional Court, of the European Jurisprudence and the compulsory decisions in the unification of the judicial practice.

The clarifications of the JCCJ come a few hours after the Court ordered the acquittal of the former Minister of Health, Nicolae Bănicioiu, in the file in which he was sued by DNA in 2021, being accused of receiving from two businessmen over 3.90 million lei (approximately 800,000 euros) to use the influence for some money to the hospital.

In January 2025, the ICCJ definitively canceled the sentence of 7 years in prison received in 2017 by Gabriel Puiu Popoviciu and ordered the payment of the businessman for corruption in relation to the association of his company, SC Băneasa Investments SA, with the University of Agronomic Sciences and Veterinary Medicine in the Capital for a land of 224 hectares.